Dominican foundations, it has a flat chevet and two equal naves divided by pillars. The
Tour du Chapelet is a reminder of the 14th-century medieval city walls.
William W.Kibler/William W.Clark
Crozet, René. “Agen, Saint-Caprais.” Congrès archéologique (Agenais) 127(1969):82–97.
Terpak, Frances. “The Role of the Saint-Eutrope Workshop in the Romanesque Campaign of Saint-
Caprais in Agen.” Gesta 25(1986):185–96.
.“The Architecture and Sculpture at Saint-Caprais in Agen.” Diss. Yale University, 1987.
AGENAIS
. Centered on the city of Agen in southwestern France, the seat of the bishopric and
county, the Agenais comprised an irregular territory lying between the rivers Garonne
and Dordogne. On the west, it included the town of Marmande; on the east, the towns of
Tournon and Puymirol; and on the south, Moissac and Auvillars.
From the 9th through the 12th century, the Agenais fell under the authority of the
dukes of Gascony and Aquitaine. In 1196, to secure peace on his southern borders,
Richard the Lionhearted granted the Agenais in fief to Count Raymond VI of Toulouse.
This transfer brought the Agenais into the center of the turbulent events that commenced
with the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and concluded with the victory of France in the
Hundred Years’ War. Simon de Montfort attacked the region in 1212, capturing the
fortress of Penne d’Agenais, where Cathar heretics were found and burned. In 1219, the
crusading army of the future Louis VIII of France assaulted Marmande, which suffered
pillage and massacre. By the Treaty of Meaux in 1229, Raymond VII of Toulouse
retained the Agenais. On his death in 1249, it was occupied by his son-in-law Alphonse
of Poitiers, brother of Louis IX.
The Agenais remained thereafter an object of contention between France and England,
where Henry III asserted his claims as duke of Aquitaine. In 1259, the Treaty of Paris
conceded the Agenais to England should Alphonse of Poitiers die without heirs. This
eventuality came to pass in 1271, but the county was not restored to Edward I of England
until 1279. Quarrels between Edward and Philip the Fair rekindled hostilities in the
Agenais; from 1293, French seneschals and English administered portions of the disputed
territory. The Agenais suffered heavily during the Hundred Years’ War. Restored to
England briefly by the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360, it returned definitively to France in
1370. At the close of the Middle Ages, the Agenais, like the Quercy, recovered slowly
from rural depopulation and economic depression.
Alan Friedlander
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; ALPHONSE OF POITIERS; LOUIS VIII;
MONTFORT; SAINT-GILLES]
Andrieu, Jules. Histoire de l’Agenais. 1893; repr. Marseille: Lafitte, 1976.
Marboutin J.R. Histoire de l’Agenais. Agen: Saint-Lanne, 1941–42.
Ourliac, Paul, and Monique Gilles. Les coutumes de l’Agenais. Vol. 1, Montpellier: Société
d’Histoire du Droit, 1976; Vol. 2, Paris: Picard, 1981.
Samazeuilh, Jean-François. Histoire de l’Agenais, du Condomois, et du Bazadais. 2 vols. Auch:
Foix, 1846; repr. Marseille: Lafitte, 1980.
The Encyclopedia 19